Black July 1983 remembered
23 July 2015
Today Eelam Tamils around the world mark thirty-two years from the
horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983,when Tamils were killed by
Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.
Armed with electoral rolls, Sinhala mobs targeted Tamil homes and
businesses looting and ransacking property. Driven from their
homes, particularly in Colombo, over 3000 Tamils were massacred,
whilst thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the
North-East.
Eye witness reports described mobs chasing Tamils down the street
with knives and setting them alight alive. Many hundreds of women
were raped. Tamil political prisoners locked up in Welikada jail,
deep within the island's south, were also targeted as prison guards
allowed Sinhala inmates to slaughter them.
We look back at events through international press coverage at the
time:
21 Jul 1983 -The Times:
"The Government yesterdayimposed local and foreign press
censorship on all news about national security, law and order,
essential supplies, andincitement to mutiny, riot or civil
commotion."
23 Jul 1983-The Montreal Gazette
"The officials said17 prisoners died in a jailbreakat the
Welikada jail in the capital of Colombo, where35 Hindu Tamil
prisoners were massacred Monday by fellow inmates belonging to the
nation's Buddhist Sinhalese majority.Guards also opened fire
yesterday on rioting Tamil prisonersin the jail of Jaffna, 386
kilometres north of Colombokilling three of them"
26 Jul 1983- The Daily Telegraph:
Motorists were dragged from their cars to be stoned and beaten
with sticks. Others were cut down with knives and axes.Mobs of
Sinhala youth rampaged through the streets, ransacking homes, shops
and offices, looting them and setting them ablaze, as they sought
out members of the Tamil ethnic minority. A mob attacked a Tamil
cyclist riding near Colombos eye hospital. The cyclist was hauled
from his bike, drenched with petrol and set alight. As he ran
screaming down the street, the mob set on him again and hacked him
down with jungle knives.
27 Jul 1983 -The Times:
"Here in Britain some of the 25,000 Sri Lanka Tamils blamed the
start of the fighting on an incident last week in whichthree
teenage girls at a bus-stop near Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka
were allegedly abducted and raped by soldiers. On girl was later
said to have committed suicide.They also claim another atrocity in
whichsix schoolboys were shot and killed by troops and policein the
same area. They blame these incidents for prompting the attack by
Tamil guerrillas on a Sri Lankan Army vehicle on Saturday, in which
13 soldiers were killed."
27 Jul 1983-The Times:
"These mostly involved in the present troubles are the Ceylon
Tamils, a highly educated, superior minority, who feel victimized
by the Sinhalese.Not only are there fewer industrial opportunities
for them in the north but Tamil boys have been discriminated
against in winning places at university""Despite their minority
status theTamils for years held top jobs in business and
administration under the British,jobs they have mostly since lost
under Sinhalese rule. The cause of the present violence must
therefore be seen in part economic terms"
28 Jul 1983-The Times:
"Smoke from hundreds of shops, offices, warehouses and homes
blew idly over Colombo yesterday.Any business, any house belonging
to, or occupied by a Tamil has been attacked by gangs of goondas
(hooligans)and the resulting destruction looks like London after a
heavy night's attention from the Luftwaffe.""Government officials
yesterday estimated that 20,000 business had been attacked in the
city and declared that there wasa pattern of organisation and
planning in the rioting and looting.""One of the principal reasons
for Britain's delay in granting independence to its former colony
was because offears that the majority would tyrannize the minority
Tamils. But the majority Sinhala speakers feel that they are
threatened by 40 million Tamil speakers in India."
29 Jul 1983 -The Montreal Gazette:
"Addressing the island nation on radio and television for the
first time since violent clashes between majority Sinhalese and
minority Tamil erupted six days ago, Jayewardene said the Tamil
movement "should have been banned long, long ago.The Sinhalese will
never agree to the separation of a country that has been a united
nation for 2500 years," Jayewardene said.People who advocate
separatismthe president said,would lose all their "civic rights",
be banned from holding any office and preventing from practising a
profession."A government official also confirmed that 130 Sinhalese
sailors of the Sri Lankan navy broke from their barracks in the
port city ofTrincomalee Monday andburned 175 houses in a Tamil
neighbourhood, killing one Tamil and wounding 10 others.A Norwegian
tourist reported seeing a Sinhalese mob pour gasoline on a minibus
full of about 20 Tamils in Colombo and set it on fire.From Oslo,
Eli Skarstein was quoted as saying, "Colombo was burning when we
left.Women, children and old people were slaughtered. Police and
soldiers did nothing to stop this genocide."Douglas Liyanage,
secretary of the ministry of state, acknowledged thatSinhalese
passengers on a Colombo-bound train from the central Sri Lanka town
of Kandy had attacked Tamil passengersthey suspected of carrying
weapons. Passengers saidone of the Tamils was chased naked and
bleeding through the railway cars until he fell dead and was thrown
off.The wave of killings was touched off by the ambush and slaying
of 13 Sinhalese soldiers by Tamil insurgent guerillas over the
weekend. But the violence grows out of a century of deeply-rooted
hatred, along with differences of language and religion between the
Buddhist Sinhalese and the Hindu Tamils."
29 Jul 1983 -The Times:
"Political parties advocating the partition of Sri Lanka will be
banned, President J R Jayawardene announced yesterday as news
emerged of a second massacre in Colombo's main jail.
In an attempt to appease the mobs which have attacked Tamil homes
and businesses, the President declared that those seeking partition
will"lose their civil rights and cannot hold office, cannot
practise professions, join movements of organizations".
Mr Jayewardene said in a nationwide broadcast: "The government has
not decided that the time has come to accede to the clamour and the
request, the natural request, of the Sinhala peoplethat we do not
allow the movement for division to grow any more."
29 Jul 1983 -The Age:
"Frustrated expectations of increased self-rulefor the Tamil
community, coupled withGovernment fears that its support from the
majority Sinhalese was slipping,appear to have been theprimary
combustiblesthat ignited the worst violencein this scenic
islandnation since 1948."
01 Aug 1983 -The Sydney Morning Herald:
"The Sri Lankan Government has cracked down on political
opponents andappealed for public support, saying ethnic bloodshed
on the island is part of a foreign-inspired plot to overthrow
it."
04 Aug 1983 - The Times:
Sri Lanka Army personnel actively encouraged arson and the
looting of Tamil business establishments and homes in Colombo.
Absolutely no action was taken to apprehend or prevent the criminal
elements involved in these activities. In many instances army
personnel participated in the looting of shops.
Tamil man stripped naked by Sinhala rioters.Photograph
Chandragupta Amarasinghe
Find out more about this iconic photographhere.
Black July was not the first time Tamils had been targeted and
killed by rampaging Sinhala mobs. In 1956, over 150 Tamils were
killed in the Eastern Province. Two years later, in 1958,
widespread riots left over 300 dead. In 1977, less than a month
after the UNP came to power, anti-Tamil riots left another 300
dead. In 1981, anti-Tamil riots took place, with ruling party MPs
supervising the violence in Jaffna.
For more on the events that led up to Black July, see our previous
feature, 'Anatomy of a pogrom'. Extract produced below:"Contrary to
popular belief, the July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, sometimes referred
to as their Holocaust, was not a spontaneous reaction to the ambush
of a Sri Lankan army patrol by Tamil guerrillas. In a report on the
attacks, the International Commission of Jurists said the suspicion
is strong that this organised attack on the Tamil population was
planned and controlled by extremist elements in the government UNP
party, and that the killing of the 13 soldiers by [Tamil
guerrillas] served as the occasion for putting the plan into
operation. The reports go so far as to allege that a member of the
Cabinet was actively involved in planning these attacks."
[more]
Sinhala rioters celebrate as they pause in the destruction of
homes and businesses in Tamil sectors of Colombo